| 3 | 5 |
| Value City Arena | Columbus, Ohio | 4,153 | |
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Feb. 27, 2015
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Two third-period goals by Ohio State in a minute allowed the Buckeyes to pull away from the Penn State men's hockey team in a 5-3 loss on Friday night at Value City Arena in front of an announced crowd of 4,153.
"Defensively you have to give (Ohio State) credit," said Guy Gadowsky. "They scored some very beautiful goals. They were able to cash in on chances and we weren't. You have to give them a lot of credit. I think what we can do better, I think, we need to be tougher to play against. I thought we did a pretty good job in the offensive zone, but we were easy to play against in our zone."
Patrick Koudys (Smithville, Ontario), Dylan Richard (Sherwood Park, Alberta) and Tommy Olczyk (Long Grove, Ill.) each scored for Penn State (16-11-4, 8-6-1-0 Big Ten. The Nittany Lions dropped their third game in last four outings.
Down 3-2 in the third, the Nittany Lions killed off a penalty with 12 minutes remaining. Only 12 seconds after the penalty expired, Josh Healey uncorked a wrister from the high slot to re-establish a two-goal lead with 11:58 remaining in the game.
If Healey's goal didn't swing the momentum in the game, then Luke Stork's goal 57 seconds later sealed the contest, taking a Penn State turnover for his fifth goal of the year.
Koudys would score with 5:15 remaining as the Nittany Lions pulled PJ Musico (Orange, Calif.) for the extra attacker. Koudys' first tally of the season made it 5-3 and the Nittany Lions would have 3:32 of empty-net time including 1:26 of 6-on-4 hockey during a power play, but the deficit would be no fewer than two.
The Nittany Lions out-shot Ohio State, 49-35, out-shooting the Buckeyes in each period. Senior forward Taylor Holstrom (Yorba Linda, Calif.) finished the game with a school record 13 shots of Penn State's 49 shots.
Penn State scored its fastest goal of the season when Olczyk put away a David Glen (Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta) pass only 31 seconds into the contest. Glen won the faceoff back to David Thompson (Glen Mills, Pa.) whose initial shot was blocked wide and Glen backhanded a pass across the crease to an open Olczyk for the easy tap-in goal. Olczyk finished with a team-best plus-two rating.
The Nittany Lions controlled play for the opening 11 minutes and nearly made it 2-0 when Holstrom found Casey Bailey (Anchorage, Alaska) on the left post, the same spot from where Olczyk scored, but Bailey wasn't able to slide the puck home.
The game opened up and Ohio State began to earn its fair share of chances including one with 7:23 remaining that required a Musico save of Nick Oddo who skated in from the blue line unopposed.
The Buckeyes finally equalized with the teams skating 4-on-4 as Matthew Weis collected an Anthony Greco pass in the slot and went five-hole with 5:34 remaining in the first. Penn State held a 15-13 edge in shots for the frame.
The second period started with Penn State in the penalty box as Bailey took a tripping penalty. The Buckeyes would capitalize on its chance as Tanner Fritz put away a shot from the slot, assisted by Greco only 79 seconds into the frame for a 2-1 lead.
The Buckeyes would take control of much of the period, but solid goaltending from Musico kept the score within one. With 15:44 to play in the second, Matthew Weis collected a stretch pass and went in on a breakaway, making a move to his right as Musico sprawled to make the highlight-reel save.
Two minutes later, Sam Jardine dinged the crossbar that would've made it 3-1, but OSU would double its lead with less than eight minutes to go through another Fritz goal.
Penn State would take only 58 seconds to respond as Richard put away a Scott Conway (Basingstoke, England) shot that was saved by Christian Frey (46 saves). Conway intercepted a pass at the blue line and shot from the slot as the rebound trickled past Frey for Richard's seventh goal of the year.
Musico finished with 30 saves for the Nittany Lions who blocked just seven shots all game as opposed to Ohio State's 22. The Nittany Lions won the faceoff battle, 37-33, with Holstrom going 13-10 and Glen registering a 12-7 mark.
The Buckeyes were 1-for-3 on the power play, while Penn State lagged behind at 0-for-2.
GAME NOTES
• Penn State fell to 4-6-0 in true road games. The Nittany Lions have lost three straight on the road and have failed to win a true road game since Dec. 6 at Wisconsin. The Nittany Lions are 1-5-0 away from Pegula Ice Arena, when including neutral ice games, in that span.
• Penn State lost just its third game this season when scoring the game's first goal (11-3-1). Olczyk's tally 31 seconds into tonight's game was the fastest of the season. The fastest in PSU program history was a Bailey marker at UConn in 2013.
• Penn State fell to 0-3-0 all-time at Value City Arena. The Nittany Lions also gave up five goals for the first time since Jan. 24 vs. Northern Michigan.
• Eight different Nittany Lions recorded a point Friday night.
• Ohio State has won the first game of its past three series, going 3-2-0 in its past five games. Previous to that five-game stretch, the Buckeyes had lost six straight contests.
• Koudys scored his first goal since Feb. 15, 2014 against Michigan State.
• Musico gave up a season-high five goals. The senior netminder started his seventh game of the season.
NEXT TIME OUT
Nittany Lion-Buckeye regular-season finale will take place Saturday. The game is slated for a 7 p.m. puck drop on American Sports Network, to be shown on BTN2GO and local outlets.